It has been a conventional practice to mix a continuous reinforcing fiber to a resin, in view of improving mechanical strength of a formed article composed of such resin. As a method for manufacturing such fiber-reinforced formed article, there has been known a method for forming pellets after mixing a thermoplastic resin with a continuous reinforcing fiber, and kneading them in a molten state.
In recent years, it has become popular to use a prepreg, which is a sheet-like intermediate material composed of a continuous reinforcing fiber and a thermoplastic resin impregnated thereto, and to process the prepreg into a formed article.
Further, it has been also discussed to use a yarn that contains a thermoplastic resin fiber and a continuous reinforcing fiber (see Patent Literature 1, for example).